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Saturday, 24 September 2011

Review: Alanna - The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness #1)

First published in: 1983

By: Atheneum

Call it fate, call it intuition, or just call it common sense, but
somehow young Alanna knows she isn't meant to become some proper lady
cloistered in a convent. Instead, she wants to be a great warrior
maiden--a female knight.

But in the land of Tortall, women aren't
allowed to train as warriors. So Alanna finds a way to switch places
with her twin, Thom, and take his place as a knight in training at the
palace of King Roald. Disguising herself as a boy, Alanna begins her
training as a page in the royal court.

Soon, she is garnering the
admiration of all around her, including the crown prince, with her
strong work ethic and her thirst for knowledge. But all the while, she
is haunted by the recurring vision of a black stone city that
emanates evil... somehow she knows it is her fate to purge that place
of its wickedness. But how will she find it? And can she fulfill her
destiny while keeping her gender a secret?

My review:

Everything I've ever heard about the Alanna
series has led me to have high expectations. I expected to love it. I
expected Tamora Pierce to become one of my favourite authors. I expected
to want to name my first-born daughter Alanna.

Looking at Alanna: The First Adventure,
it's such a slim book, you'd think it would collapse under the weight
of those expectations. But I can honestly say it didn't. It held up. And
I think it deserves to stand beside the greats of children's fantasy.

It
makes me smile to think on how fast paced it is. It's less than 200
pages long, with only 7 chapters, so the story just sets off and keeps
going, with no drag at all. The first chapter, 'Twins' introduces us to
Alanna and Thom. Their father is sending Alanna to a convent, to learn
how to become a proper lady and Thom to the King's court, to be trained
as a knight. Only Thom hates fighting and would much rather learn
spells, while the thought of being a lady makes Alanna shudder - she
wants to be a great warrior. So the twins decide to switch destinations
and because women aren't allowed to become knights, Alanna will have to
pretend to the court that she is a boy. This entire plan is hatched on
the first page, it's set into motion within 5 and Alanna is at the
palace by the end of the chapter.

Once there, Alanna does
begin to resemble other 'magic school' books, as she learns the ropes
at court, struggles to cope with lessons and is preyed upon by the
resident bully. But underlying these things at all times, is the fact
that Alanna is a girl pretending to be a boy and it just gives
everything that happens a different dynamic. When Alanna finally beats
her tormentor in a fight, it means so much more than if they were the
same gender. The premise could easily have become silly, cross-dressing
hijinks but Pierce doesn't shy away from the practicalities. Alanna's
breasts start to grow and she starts menstruating and you feel real
anxiety for her when this happens.

And
sad for her. As a modern reader, I can't help but think: does Alanna
have gender dysphoria? She lives in a world with heavy restrictions on
women, so the discontent she feels in her own body is a result of that. I
hope that in the following books she gets to appreciate and even enjoy
being female.

I
have 2 tiny complaints about this book and both concern the use of
magic. One is that it isn't really explained and I wasn't sure what the
rules were. Many characters have the Gift but don't really use it. I
suppose I'm used to the Harry Potter characters using magic everyday, so in Alanna I did wonder why it wasn't used more. The second is that I thought Alanna was a little too
good at everything. The story does show her working for it; she puts in
more extra hours and trains harder than anybody else. However, I
thought Alanna becoming a great knight and having an unusually powerful
Gift for magic was a little too much. That's probably down to me being
old and grudging, though. I'm sure if I'd read this when I was younger
(and how I wish I did!), I would be doing nothing but cheering Alanna:
Superwoman on.

Overall,
this is a really good story and promises a great series to follow. My
expectations were met. And my hypothetical future daughter? I think
Alanna will be at least a middle name.

3 comments:

I grew up reading books by Tamora Pierce and have been in love with her fantasy worlds for as long as I can remember. I think a lot of the reason why there is not much mention of the Gift is because Alanna is a little afraid of it. I think in the third book in this series, the Gift is explained a little more.

Lan - Tamora Pierce seems to strike such strong feelings in everybody who has read her. I wish I'd read her when I was growing up. I'm looking forward to discovering more about the Gift and seeing more of Tortall in the following books.

About Me

I live in London, England. By day I'm an English teacher and by night I read and now, review books. My favourite genres are YA, Historical Fiction and Fantasy, and especially any combination of these 3.